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Membership in SCORE San Luis Obispo County

There are 25 men and women who are members of the San Luis Obispo County SCORE organization. If you would enjoy putting your business or professional experience to work by helping small business people meet and overcome the contingencies of running their own business and assisting people in starting their business on the right track, SCORE might be for you.

Your skills and knowledge (whether they lay in the areas of turn-arounds, start-ups, finance, marketing, operations, engineering...) can be put to use in assisting SCORE clients.

What is SCORE?

SCORE is a mixture of retired and existing business owners or executives who volunteer to counsel individual people in the management of their existing or startup business.

What is the time Commitment?

SCORE expects a total investment of your time of 10-12 hours a month. Your monthly activities could include counseling sessions with clients, once a month chapter meeting, workshop planning or implementation of the SCORE marketing plan to educate the public regarding the service of SCORE. You could also use your leadership and administrative skills in chapter executive responsibilities.

We have three primary services to provide to the community:

Consulting

Our clientele come to us to get assistance with business problems. The problems range from "Is this a good idea for a business?" to "How do I expand my business and maintain the existing revenue flow?" We counsel in teams of two people. As a counselor, you might be on call for 2-3 half days per month.

We also conduct counseling through e-mail contacts - locally and nationally. The national e-mail counseling is based on the background of the counselor (e.g., agro-business, marketing or retail).

Workshops

There are four workshops currently provided by SLO SCORE members and invited industry experts. The monthly workshop, Starting a Business, explores the fundamentals of starting a business. It covers business startup issues such as business plan development, marketing, cost control and cash flow. The Business Plan Workshop is given quarterly and provides an overview of the traditional business plan, describes the primary elements of Marketing, and provides an explanation and sample of a Profit and Loss Statement. Workshop 3, Marketing Your Business, is held every two months and goes in depth into a Unique Selling Proposition and Branding followed by a lively presentation on Social Marketing. RUnnign Your Business, the 4th workshop, is given at times and places designated by local Chambers of Commerce and focuses on the skills to to run an existing business. Click here to be routed to the Local Workshops page to see dates and times for upcoming workshops.

Publications

The members have written a book entitled How to Start a Business in San Luis Obispo County (now in its 7th edition) that provides not only a guide to starting a business, but also local contacts in city and county governments, banking and other organizations helpful to a startup. In order to address a larger portion of the county population, it is available in both English and Spanish.

Benefits of Membership

Enjoy the satisfaction of contributing to the success of others.

Gain the respect and recognition of your peers and associates.

Demonstrate the skills and knowledge that led to your successful career.

Provide leadership to your community.

Enjoy opportunities for ongoing education.

Valued Member Skills

Business, administrative, management and professional expertise

Computer literacy

Develop interpersonal communications skills

Analytical and problem solving skills

Ability to grow and take charge

Desire to stay current with the evolving business community

How do I find out more?

Attend one of our monthly meetings held from 9:30 to 12 noon on the second Tuesday of the month at the conference room for the SLO SCORE offices at the San Luis Business Center, 1228 Broad StreetSan Luis Obispo, CA 93401;